Andretti’s one race at Infineon in 1970 a white-knuckle affair

When Mario Andretti came to what was then Sears Point International Raceway for the USAC Champ Car race in 1970, the facility was more than rustic. The 2.5-mile Sonoma track was frightening. Whereas safety was adequate for the SCCA Trans-Am cars that ran the previous year, the Champ Cars of the day were far faster and offered far less driver protection. Impacts could produce fireballs. Put a wheel wrong, and really bad things were a second away.
“I remember Sears Point to me was a very dangerous place to race at our level,” Andretti said from his home in Nazareth, Penn. “That’s why we never went back. In those days we would accept a lot of things, but Sears Point was over the top.”

The configuration of the circuit was made more treacherous by what was just beyond the pavement.

“If you put a wheel off you could hit an abutment or a pole. If you went off on the shoulder there were big ruts and you could easily flip the car,” he continued. “The place was so primitive, it really needed a big facelift.”

There was a big mound driver’s right 10 or 15 feet off the track at the exit of the Turn 6 Carousel. The spectator bridge at Turn 10 had an abutment even closer to the track, and the racing line had you right at the edge of the pavement next to it just after the fastest part of the track. Get Turns 4 or 8 wrong and you’d go sideways into a hill. There was nothing beyond a single-layer steel barrier at the Turn 7 hairpin, and concrete protected by tires awaited the unwary at the Turn 11 hairpin.

“There were certain areas where if you went off you were going to buy it,” Andretti added solemnly. “The one thing that stuck with me was the place was so flat-ass dangerous. So because of the place you have to respect it a little more like the (14.3-mile) Nurburgring.”

Andretti admitted that in the heat of battle, however, that respect can take a back seat. “But when you’re under pressure you still take things to the limit.”

Apart from the far inferior safety systems on the cars of the day, danger came from how close to the ragged edge one had to drive them. The USAC Champ Cars were designed to race on ovals, so they didn’t do all the things a lighter single-seater could and should do. They were overpowered for their level of grip, twitchy, and unpredictable.

“In those days the cars didn’t have hardly any aerodynamic help at all and you were sliding around,” Andretti said. “That was the way we were doing it. It was just a matter of taking what you had under you to the limit.”

The first three rows for the race on April 4, 1970 read like a who’s who in racing history. Andretti lined up second beside pole sitter Mark Donohue. On row two there was Dan Gurney with Al Unser Sr. alongside in the Johnny Lightning Special, the car he would make famous with victory in the Indy 500 a month later. John Cannon, winner of the first pro event at Sears Point, the Formula A Continental Challenge, started fifth flanked by Bobby Unser.

Donohue broke before the end of the first lap. Andretti assumed the lead but Gurney passed him on lap 4 and led the rest of the way. Andretti hung on as long as he could, but Gurney’s Eagle-Ford was unstoppable. Al Unser finished third ahead of Gordon Johncock and Johnny Rutherford.

Second was no consolation at all for Andretti. After all, he was the guy primarily responsible for USAC adding the challenges of road course racing to the oval-track championship.

“I enjoy road racing above all. I’m the one that pushed USAC in that direction,” Andretti said. “We started out at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and I won the first ever road race at that level.”

It was a case of “be careful what you wish for…” for Andretti, because Sears Point produced frustration and consternation, not champagne. The USAC series, or the CART variant that followed, never returned. Neither did Andretti, but only because his career kept him in Champ Cars and Formula 1. He earned four titles in USAC and CART as well as the 1978 World Driving Championship.

In it’s current configuration and level of facility improvement, Andretti would’ve relished to run here. The IndyCars of today are far safer with deformable fuel cells and carbon-fiber chassis that absorb impacts rather than translating them directly to the driver. Grip is astronomically better through massive downforce and better tires. Safety is far greater at every point around the track, and rather than approaching the regular Turn 11 hairpin at 180 mph for this weekend’s Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, drivers use an abbreviated Turn 11 cutting off .3 of a mile of the track.

But “if only” no longer needs to apply. Just like last year, Andretti is back at what is now known as Infineon Raceway, driving an IndyCar again. Only this one isn’t a single-seater; it’s a two-seater with a lucky fan strapped in right behind him. IndyCar and Honda teamed to create this stretched version of an IndyCar. At the start of almost all North American races, Andretti or another legendary driver take their passengers around between the pace cars and the field for the first two pace laps prior to the start. When the final pace lap begins and all but one of the pace cars are brought in, the two-seater is unleashed for one hot lap.

Given the opportunity, Andretti and his willing victim don’t just hang about.

“Some get pretty dizzy, actually,” Andretti said of his flushed passengers. “You ought to try it.”